Roosting bar height

Please advice. I read everywhere that roosting bars must be higher than breeding boxes.

My main question is this really nessary especially when i wil be closing nesting boxes at night.

Reason for asking is it will be in a hot climate so i want plenty of ventalation so don't want to make solid walls for coop to high so can have good airfolw over the top.

Will be a retangular shed one side layer coops with day area for each coop, other side coops for boiler chickens. Predomenint wind is from more layer egg side which wil also be south side, im in souther hemesphere so more shade in day areas.

In my experience, chickens like to sleep up high. The risk you have with having nesting boxes up high is that your hens will think it is a nifty spot to sleep in which in turn means they are going to manure in the boxes.

If you are going to block off those boxes, then I wouldn't think it would be much of a big deal.

I know that I cannot reliably go the the chicken coop each night to block off nesting boxes, and consistently go to the coop before sunrise to open them up again. Therefore, I find it easier to provide roosts just under the rafters of the coop.

My coop/run combo sounds like what you are thinking of doing. 24'x24' deep bedding in all of it. I have half under roof and 12'x12' of the roofed section with walls on the N,W,E side and open on the south. The solid walls are 7' high then about 2' of 2x4 welded wire fence, then the roof. All the heat goes out through the top and it stays cooler than otherwise in the hot humid summers. I do not provide supplemental heat in the winter and everyone does just fine.

When I first built it, I had a 6' section in the 3 sided part that I put 3 roosting bars. I do not think a chicken has every roosted on the bars, they fly all the way up to any open rafter or horizontal tie and roost there. I always get a laugh when I look over at the roosting bars. They have turned into a ladder to get up to the highest possible parts of the coop.

My 2cts worth, 40+ years having birds never put in roosting, poles bars, whatever. I put chicken wire over nests to the ceiling to keep the birds off the nests.  Chickens flock up on the floor, make it through the night .  I build the nests 18" off the floor litter, 24 from the plywood floor, nests 18h x 16W x 12D, 2 high, birds get in and out which ever level they choose fine

I put a shelf in my coop up near the roof.  I kept containers of grit, calcium, etc. on it.
A couple of the hens decided they wanted to roost there.  I come into the coop and all the containers are on the ground.  Put them back up, on the ground.  I finally lost the battle.
Will be expanding my coop this spring and putting roosting bars up high for them.  

Nest boxes through a hole in the wall, least comfortable to roost on.  Roost bar one foot in front of the holes then another higher where they most likely will roost.

This is a neat idea!

Hans Quistorff wrote:Nest boxes through a hole in the wall, least comfortable to roost on.  Roost bar one foot in front of the holes then another higher where they most likely will roost.

Chickens, whose ancestors were small velociraptors, prefer to roost up on high, even when it is very hot. I suspect it is an ancient form of protection, as predators don't climb trees very well.
If you feel it gets too hot in the summer, open a hole up on high, under the eves and one down low by the floor.[Heat rises, so the cold air comes in at the bottom of the building and escapes at the top, without too much need for additional ventilation. Cover these holes with 1/4" wires] to limit insects, mice, etc.
There can be considerable jostling when there are many bars at different heights, and less when they are all on a set of bars that are all at the same height, but that's not always handy if you have lots of chooks.
As long as they can jump up on them and land without hurting themselves, the height of the bar isn't terribly important.
For your coop cleaning convenience, you may want to have poop boards under the roosts: They poop mostly when they are roosting, so a poop board is a convenient way to harvest pure poop [like once a week for 33 chooks] while keeping the rest of the litter quite clean for months on end! [In the winter, that's actually pretty important!]
They seem to prefer 2" X 4" to roost on, and if you want  to direct the poop, slant the 2X4 at almost a 45 degree angle: They will grasp the top of the board and sit on their feet, which keeps their feet warmer in winter. The poop with land under the low end of the slanted 2 X 4. Avoid them being nose to nose by placing the boards in a \  / pattern. This way, you will have a line of poop and they will be back to back on the bars.
I have some sheets of bathroom wall material so I can scrape the stuff clean and even pressure wash it on sunny days. I use a rectangular trowel and also a long handled metal "windshield" bar.

Roosting is what birds do! It is important to have roosting bars in the coop.  It is the final defense should a predator gain access to the coop at night.  They should be about 4-5 feet high.  I use some plywood to block my nest boxes in the afternoon when collecting eggs.  I have 9 nest boxes and sometimes leave some blocked depending on how many layers I have and what time of year it is.  If you leave them open chickens will sleep and poop in them.  I used to put straw in the boxes, but the hens always managed to push it out.  I finally settled on cut pieces of astroturf held in place by a staple gun.